The full scale of mass ticket office closures at stations through Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington and other commuter stops has been revealed.

Many will be reduced to a single member of staff or lose them completely on some days in a blow to vulnerable travellers, including women and school children.

The closures have been condemned by campaigners from disability groups in the borough, who argue it will make it impossible for many to use the train.

Train operators, including South Western Railway (SWR), have given the public just two weeks to register complaints over the controversial cost cutting plan, which is being driven by the Government.

The proposals by SWR - and other train operators around the country - put stations into one of four categories .

Only Richmond falls into the highest Category 1, where some expert staff will – in theory – be on hand to help travellers select and buy the best value tickets.

Every other station, including Twickenham, will fall into lower categories where station staff support will be reduced.

Twickenham will be a Category 2 station. In theory there will be a number of staff to support travellers – although they will not necessarily have ticketing expertise.

Most stations through the borough, including Barnes, Mortlake, St Margarets, Strawberry Hill, Teddington, Whitton and Fulwell, will be in Category 3.

These will have just one person manning the building for a few hours, and even this cover will be removed on some days.

For example, Teddington and Strawberry Hill would no longer be manned on a Sunday, while Mortlake, Hampton Wick and Whitton would lose staff on Friday and Saturday.

(Credit SWR)

Barnes would lose staff on Saturday and Sunday, while Hampton and North Sheen would be unmanned on Sunday and Monday.

Category 4 stations are currently unmanned, and this would remain the case. These include Barnes Bridge and Kew Bridge.

(Credit SWR)

Ruils, which is the lead borough charity supporting disabled children and adults, as well as those with long term health and mental health conditions, has urged people to lodge a formal objection.

It said: "Closing ticket offices will have a massive detrimental impact on disabled people who need assistance to access transport.

"Disabled passengers already face significant barriers in accessing public transport and closing ticket offices, and "redeploying staff" will take away key allies who are there to provide personalised support.

(Credit SWR)

"For example, many disabled people are digitally excluded, meaning they cannot access tickets online and ticket vending machines at stations are inherently inaccessible to those who do not have the ability to pay with a card.

"These proposals are discriminatory and will strip away independent travel for disabled people across the country. We urge everyone in our community to respond and strongly oppose! We have just 2 weeks to make our voices heard!"

Richmond resident and disability champion, Alan Benson MBE, who relies on the Tube and train network is chairman of London TravelWatch and co-chair of the Department for Transport's Inclusive Transport Stakeholder Group.

(Credit SWR)

He said: "Ticket office staff do so much more than just sell tickets. They are the first and often only place where disabled passengers can seek assistance, information, accessible facilities and emergency help.

"If these closures go ahead, up to 14 million disabled people in the UK could be prevented from travelling by rail, and years of progress to make transport more accessible would be reversed.

"These reforms are being flown under the banner of 'modernisation'. They are, on the contrary, deeply regressive. There is nothing modern about shutting disabled people out of their communities.

"We have launched a campaign to stop the closures, and we need as many people as possible to join the fight."

Feature pic should be the one of the queue at Richmond station (Credit Alan Benson)

Mr Benson also posted an image of the ticket office at Richmond station, which was clearly busy on the day the closures were announced.

SWR admitted that as many as one in four tickets are bought via a ticket office, rather than using an App or some other digital tech option. However, it defended the closures saying: "This proposal forms part of plans to modernise the railway and bring it more in line with modern consumer expectations.

"Over the past decade, we have seen significantly reduced usage of ticket offices as customers move to alternative, more convenient ways of buying tickets.

"Seventy-five per cent of SWR passenger journeys are already made using smart media - contactless, Oyster, Tap2Go, SWR Touch Smartcards, eTickets

The vast majority of ticket types are already available via smart media, online or at ticket vending machines."

It added: "To modernise our retailing offer, we are proposing to transition our station colleagues to new multi-skilled roles with a clear focus on helping our customers.

"Our proposals will create a single team on each station, working together to help customers with different aspects of their journeys from journey planning to ticket purchasing."

Details of the proposals and how to lodge an objection can be found here – https://www.southwesternrailway.com/station-change-proposal